Issue date: 9/11/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Steve Berry SIUE junior Jenny Kates (in white) goes hard into a play on Friday. Kates and the Cougars won both games this weekend.

Katie Yearian may want to change her title from "Team Captain" to "Captain Clutch" after her game-winning goal Sunday.

The SIUE women's soccer midfielder netted her third of the season with less than two minutes to play in regulation, breaking a scoreless tie to pluck the University of Southern Indiana Screaming Eagles 1-0 in front of the home crowd.

It was a battle of persistence for the Cougars as they fired 14 shots that either landed in USI goalie Meagan Homolla's hands or were too wide to hit the net. Yearian said her goal was a result of good playmaking and constant pressure on Homolla.

"We all worked hard, we knew it was coming (and) we just had to keep going until it came," Yearian said.

SIUE assistant coach Kelly Dill said the coaching staff decided to send Yearian and fellow leading scorer and midfielder junior Michele Martin to lead a late offensive attack and the play paid dividends.

"We did that because we knew those two are great finishers and we knew one of them was going to pull through," Dill said. "Katie happened to be (that player)."

USI managed just three shots in the first period against senior goalie Kim Roady, but would explode for seven in the second period. Junior Kaci Backs played between the pipes for SIUE and kept busy with six saves.

The Cougars ended the weekend with a 2-0 record in the Great Lakes Valley Conference after beating USI, but not before they shut out fellow GLVC rival Kentucky Wesleyan College 2-0 Friday night.

SIUE attacked the KWC net in the first period and scored both of its goals within 10 shots. Martin nailed her third goal of the season on a pass from junior forward Jenny Kates nearly seven minutes into the game.

Yearian picked up her second goal late in the first on an assist from Martin after it bounced off the post and landed in the net. Martin nearly made the game a 3-0 affair in the closing seconds of the first half, but her goal was waived due to the buzzer.

"What she did at the end of the game and hitting the post, coming to get the rebound when there's three or four seconds left and still getting a shot off," McMillian said. "That's what you like to see as a coach."

Continued...

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